“They all seem to be going through something that makes them happy, free, uplifted, dreaming of a better future and feeling well because of it.” That’s what Shanghai-based photographer Mimo Khair sees when she looks through her lens at the young artists profiled on By Art We Live. Founded last year by Khair and New York-based artist and writer Mark Siegel, By Art We Live is an outreach program that profiles young artists around the world through independent and UN-facilitated visits, highlighting the value of art in the lives of children everywhere.
The website for By Art We Live includes profiles of young artists in several countries as well as images of their artwork—a painting of dogs by Rebecca from China, umbrellas painted by Maria from Lebanon. For Safari, a former child soldier in Democratic Republic of the Congo, art has become a tool for healing. The site includes Khair’s photographs of the artists. “It’s really art reporting on art,” says Siegel.
“We live in a world where so much of the confirmation you can hope to get in your young years is for becoming a good, useful tool of the economy,” says Siegel, who notes with dismay how often art is relegated to the status of a hobby. “This is a way of saying no, [art] is a big, important part of your life, and a big, important part of being human.”
Khair and Siegel plan to publish a book and expand the site to include a forum where young artists can chat. The focus is not on prodigies but on children who have a passion for art. “It’s a celebration of the fact of their love affair with art,” says Khair, “and an inspiration to other child artists.”
